San Diego’s major newspaper, the UT-San Diego, called for the Solana Beach City Council to repeal the plastic bag ban today:
Now that Solana Beach officials have agreed to revisit parts of their plastic bag ban because shoppers are complaining about paying a dime for paper bags, we have a suggestion: Bag the whole thing.
Lesa Heebner, newly re-elected Solana Beach City Council Member floated the idea of this ordinance back in October, 2011. Newly elected County Supervisor Dave Roberts, then a Council member in Solana Beach, tried to extend the ban to include newspaper plastic bags. Heebner and Roberts, aided by activist (and newly elected Council member Peter Zahn), controlled public hearings until I (and others) sounded the alarm last March. It was too late; Heebner introduced ordinance 435 in April, 2012 and the Council voted unanimously to ban plastic bags in Solana Beach (Roberts didn’t get his wish to ban newspaper bags).
How far out of the mainstream is the Solana Beach Council? Mayor Terry Sinnott, in nearby Del Mar, denounced the idea of force:
Del Mar Mayor Terry Sinnott said he’d like to encourage businesses to curb their plastic bag usage rather than implement a ban. “I think what Solana Beach has done has been a detriment to their area, even though they are reconsidering it,” he said.
This has been my point all along. Heebner and her green henchmen are using force to ban plastic bags when peaceful persuasion is more appropriate for a free society. Let me give you an example. At Vons in Solana Beach, it is punishable by law to offer me a plastic bag, and required by law, to collect a ten-cent tax for each paper bag Von’s gives me. At Albertson’s in Del Mar, I can have either paper or plastic bags for free. At the new Whole Foods in Del Mar, only paper bags are offered and, if I opt to use my own bags or boxes, Whole Foods gives me a ten-cent refund.
What’s the difference? Force, and force makes all the difference in the world. Albertson’s doesn’t care to get involved in this issue–some consumers may choose to shop elsewhere. Whole Foods is offering its money to encourage certain behaviors–you can accept or reject that and, if you don’t like its plastic bag policy, you can shop elsewhere. But if you shop at Henry’s or Vons, in Solana Beach, the “law” has imposed its will upon you through City ordinance–you have no choice. Break that ordinance, you get fined and/or put in jail for up to six months. Resist arrest when they try to take you to jail for breaking ordinance 435 and…well, you get the idea.
When all you have is a hammer, everything you see is nail. Take the hammer away from the extremists on the Solana Beach City Council; they can’t be trusted to swing it judiciously.